Childhood's End

When I was a wee lad, barely five or six years old, it felt like every little thing in my life was monumental. Like everything was cool and fun.... the Native American man on the TV test pattern that I'd see early on Saturday mornings, before the day's programming began; those 60's cartoons that I so anticipated (Underdog, Mighty Mouse); my Billy Blast-Off toy action figure; my far-out toy space ray gun with wild sound effects and flashing lights. These were the things that made life reasonably complete at that tender age.

Another fond memory was when my mother handed down to me her old View-Master and a bunch of reels. The viewer itself dates back to the 1940's, I believe, or maybe the 50's at the latest. That makes it an antique! It's not in perfect condition but it still works just fine. My little brother and I gave that thing a thorough workout when we took possession of it. The kid brother got his own, more modern, View-Master one Christmas, so this vintage model became all mine. As an adult, I let my daughter enjoy that same stereoscopic viewer, though I kept it safely stored in between uses. And it has survived to this day. 

When my mom gave me the View-Master, I also received a handful of similarly vintage reels, stuff like The Lone Ranger, Cisco Kid, Tom Sawyer, and Tarzan. Each reel or set of reels told a story, usually adapted from an old TV show or movie. Since I hadn't seen such things on TV yet, the 3-D reels were my introduction to these colourful characters and adventures.

Other fun reels I had, aimed more at my youthful age group, included Casper the Friendly Ghost, Woody Woodpecker, Bugs Bunny, and Tom and Jerry. These, too, seemed to be older-looking releases. Even as I neared age ten to twelve, I collected a smattering of new titles, things like the James Bond movie Live and Let Die, Star Trek and Batman and Archie (all adapted from the 60's TV series), Shazam and Superman (from the comics), and even some 70's TV adaptations like Happy Days, Space: 1999, The Six Million Dollar Man, and Kung Fu (starring David Carradine). I'd picked up some of these after noticing and loving the television shows upon which they were based. 

These are great souvenirs today, relics of older technology that are still fun to revisit - for a few of us oldsters, anyway. Every once in a long, long time, I'll dig out the View-Master and check out a few reels... transported back to a simpler time. A time without streaming Youtube videos and everything ever created at our fingertips, when small pleasures were enough to fill our lazy childhood days.